Multiple Republican Senators now have coronavirus, impacting Supreme Court nomination process
Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham announced a timetable for the confirmation process for Donald Trump’s illegitimate Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Even with Graham and the Senate GOP fast tracking the complicated process as much as possible, they were still looking at not being able to hold the final confirmation vote until the very end of October.
This meant that any delay could result in the nomination process not being complete before election day. Now two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, have tested positive for coronavirus. It appears Lee caught it at last Saturday’s White House Rose Garden event announcing the Barrett nomination. It’s unclear if additional Republicans on the committee have been exposed.
But it is becoming clear that this rapidly expanding coronavirus outbreak within Donald Trump’s orbit is going to impact the Supreme Court nomination process one way or another. Lindsey Graham will likely attempt to move forward with the Senate Judiciary Committee portion of the process, even with two of his members ill and quarantined. But with the committee having 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats to begin with, and the possibility of more Republicans on the committee having been exposed, Graham could end up temporarily losing his voting majority.
This comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the curiously timed announcement yesterday afternoon that he was considering shifting the Supreme Court confirmation vote to the lame duck session after election day. This would present its own challenges for Senate Repubicans. But it appears he knew that all of this was coming yesterday when he began openly talking about the possibility of not being able to pull off the confirmation before election day.
